No Relief for Fence-Line Activists in Corpus Christi
Only a month and a half after Suzie Canales, a waitress from a fence line community in Corpus Christi, Texas, raised hell in what was supposed to be a self-congratulatory environmental justice forum at the White House, there is still no relief for community members living alongside one of the largest clusters of oil and chemical refineries in the country. Within the past week, Corpus Christi has been hit by a string of bad news:
Yet another study, done by none other than the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, has revealed shocking quantities of lead contamination in families’ backyards. One backyard registered 728 parts per million of lead, another registered 679 ppm., and several more registered above 400 ppm. The EPA’s standard for lead in bare soil in play areas is 400 ppm by weight.
This, on the heels of a proposed demolition plan for the nearby ASARCO/Encycle plant, which according to most accounts is saturated with arsenic. The TCEQ’s plan involves putting up a ten-foot high tarp around the plant, to prevent debris from the demolition flying into the nearby neighborhoods. Yet, as one resident pointed out, “the building is three to four stories tall…how is a ten-foot tarp supposed to protect us?”
But wait, there’s more…the Las Brisas petroleum-coke plant received its fantastically flawed air permit from the TCEQ on Wednesday. If built, it’ll produce 1,320 megawatts a year by burning petroleum coke, a product of refining oil that’s regulated like coal but is actually a whole lot dirtier. The plant would emit 220 pounds of mercury a year and, by Las Brisas’s own estimate, increase pollution in Nueces County by 82 percent. Nueces County, due to the Refinery Row area, also ranked with the highest U.S. refinery benzene emissions by county (1997-2008) and benzene could be prime factor in the elevated birth defect rates.
As the federal EPA fails to act and the TCEQ continues to steamroll over the community, the fence-line problems associated with living near one of the largest clusters of refineries in the country continue.
Suzie Canales writes to the Environmental Protection Agency and to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the two biggest environmental agencies in the world, respectively. “For at least the last two weeks the people of Hillcrest have had to endure frightening sirens in the early morning hours and at night. These sirens are not the typical ones they hear for lunch or for a shift change. These are the ones that go off when something is going on in the plant.
It’s cruel and merciless to have this continue without any intervention. People are not being told what’s going on. One neighbor says she can’t sleep because of the sirens going on and off, and she’s so frightened that she has packed a bag with two days worth of clothing should she have to flee.”
Recall that after the BP spill, accounts began surfacing of workers who had expressed worries about security and safety prior to the explosion. It seems Citgo may be headed down the same path:
“We have heard from people ‘inside’ the Citgo refinery that there is concern, that a unit is unstable and that workers are fearing for their own safety. Someone needs to find out what is the cause of the problems. The people deserve to know.”
Many in the community have come to the realization that something is going to blow soon. As one person put it, “I just hope when it does blow the children are away at school.”
At a citizen’s town hall in Corpus Christi in 2010, local university professor asked, “Why don’t we prosecute environmental crimes the same way we prosecute all other crimes?”
Nobody is taking anything lying down. Groups opposed to Las Brisas vow to keep fighting, and there is no doubt Suzie Canales will continue to shake down the EPA.
Support them. Ask EPA air chief, Gina McCarthy, to take action in Corpus Christi and support the community. It’s never too late.
Photo: Suzie Canales
Flavia de la Fuente works for environmental justice with the Sierra Club in Texas by day and volunteers as a DREAM-activist by night.
http://news.change.org/stories/no-relief-for-fence-line-activists-in-corpus-christi
